A Rock-solid Faith
06/25/09 05:31 Filed in: Faith
“Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock . . .” (Matthew 7: 21-29)
In today's Gospel, Jesus speaks as the son of a carpenter, a man well-versed in the construction trades. He reminds us that, in the spiritual realm, our souls are a dwelling place, a temple of the Holy Spirit. They must be grounded on a rock-solid faith.
In today's Gospel, Jesus speaks as the son of a carpenter, a man well-versed in the construction trades. He reminds us that, in the spiritual realm, our souls are a dwelling place, a temple of the Holy Spirit. They must be grounded on a rock-solid faith.
“Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock . . .” (Matthew 7: 21-29)
In the U.S., there are vast stretches of ocean front property where multi-million dollar homes sit atop shifting sands, but none more spectacular than the beach front mansions that line the bay of Naples, Florida. A few years ago, when my wife and I took a boat tour of the bay, I asked the guide what would happen to those magnificent homes, if they took a direct hit from a hurricane.
"Well," he said, "the last big hurricane to hit the city was Donna, a category five hurricane back in 1960. None of these homes were here then. If they had been, they would have been washed away by the storm surge."
Despite the risk, extremely wealthy and successful people, had closed their eyes to the obvious danger and had built on shifting sands. Blinded by their own success and trusting in their own financial resources, they had placed their lives and possessions in harm's way.
They are not alone. According to the Federal Emergency Management Administration, there are roughly 340,000 buildings within 500 feet of the U.S. coastline, including 87,000 homes and other structures that are threatened by erosion. Some 60 million people live in the path of hurricanes.
But it need not take a perfect storm to expose the folly of trusting to our own devices.
Consider the tens of thousands of people who built homes in the '90s, using the latest construction materials to make their homes energy efficient and weather tight. Many of those homebuilders used a form of synthetic stucco, which made the homes look as solid as a rock and indestructible. But within less than ten years, it was discovered that settling of the homes could cause hairline cracks in the stucco - - cracks just big enough for rain water to pass through, one drop at a time. Many of those homes are now rotting from within. The first sign of trouble is what people in the construction trades call "weeping" below the window ledges. It's as if the windows are the eyes of the home and the water trickling down the cracks are tear drops.
In today's Gospel, Jesus speaks as the son of a carpenter, a man well-versed in the construction trades. He reminds us that, in the spiritual realm, our souls are a dwelling place, a temple of the Holy Spirit. They must be grounded on a rock-solid faith.
Life's storms can challenge our faith in a category five calamity, or one day at a time - -drop-by-drop in ways that aren't apparent at the outset but which have a cumulative effect.
After a big storm, as in the death of a loved one or the loss of a job, people are quick to come to our aid, to console us, to pray for us and to shore up our faith. But preventing the small cracks and gaps from undermining our faith is a do-it-yourself job. Just as the owner of a stucco home has to look for and caulk and seal every crack, we have to weatherproof our souls against life's storms. The best time to do that is before it starts to rain. Daily Bible study, prayer and regular attendance at Mass are like caulking compound for our temple of the Holy Spirit.
In the U.S., there are vast stretches of ocean front property where multi-million dollar homes sit atop shifting sands, but none more spectacular than the beach front mansions that line the bay of Naples, Florida. A few years ago, when my wife and I took a boat tour of the bay, I asked the guide what would happen to those magnificent homes, if they took a direct hit from a hurricane.
"Well," he said, "the last big hurricane to hit the city was Donna, a category five hurricane back in 1960. None of these homes were here then. If they had been, they would have been washed away by the storm surge."
Despite the risk, extremely wealthy and successful people, had closed their eyes to the obvious danger and had built on shifting sands. Blinded by their own success and trusting in their own financial resources, they had placed their lives and possessions in harm's way.
They are not alone. According to the Federal Emergency Management Administration, there are roughly 340,000 buildings within 500 feet of the U.S. coastline, including 87,000 homes and other structures that are threatened by erosion. Some 60 million people live in the path of hurricanes.
But it need not take a perfect storm to expose the folly of trusting to our own devices.
Consider the tens of thousands of people who built homes in the '90s, using the latest construction materials to make their homes energy efficient and weather tight. Many of those homebuilders used a form of synthetic stucco, which made the homes look as solid as a rock and indestructible. But within less than ten years, it was discovered that settling of the homes could cause hairline cracks in the stucco - - cracks just big enough for rain water to pass through, one drop at a time. Many of those homes are now rotting from within. The first sign of trouble is what people in the construction trades call "weeping" below the window ledges. It's as if the windows are the eyes of the home and the water trickling down the cracks are tear drops.
In today's Gospel, Jesus speaks as the son of a carpenter, a man well-versed in the construction trades. He reminds us that, in the spiritual realm, our souls are a dwelling place, a temple of the Holy Spirit. They must be grounded on a rock-solid faith.
Life's storms can challenge our faith in a category five calamity, or one day at a time - -drop-by-drop in ways that aren't apparent at the outset but which have a cumulative effect.
After a big storm, as in the death of a loved one or the loss of a job, people are quick to come to our aid, to console us, to pray for us and to shore up our faith. But preventing the small cracks and gaps from undermining our faith is a do-it-yourself job. Just as the owner of a stucco home has to look for and caulk and seal every crack, we have to weatherproof our souls against life's storms. The best time to do that is before it starts to rain. Daily Bible study, prayer and regular attendance at Mass are like caulking compound for our temple of the Holy Spirit.
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